HORSE COUNTRY
By TomL
Marion County is “Horse Country”! I was always pushing for the people of Marion County to recognize the Cattlemen’s Association. After all it’s the cattle industry that is suffering now! I remember a great horse farm on hwy 40 on the way to Ocala from Dunnellon. “Ocala Stud Farm” I think was the name. In Ocala, FL, the area is famous for its numerous horse farms, with many families like the O’Farrell Family it’s is generational, the father and his son and his son’s son. The family bringing Quarter Horses and Thoroughbreds from Texas in the 1960s It seems that the limestone-rich soil was ideal for bone development, establishing Ocala as the “Horse Capital of the World,”!
Horse Country one horse at a time. My wife and I lived in south Florida and we had a horse and pastured it in Davie Fl which was South Florida’s Horse country. The price of land was out of our reach so we decided to move and find land that we could afford. We won d up in Dunnellon Florida. We bought 20 acres and bought 20 more, at one time we had 55 acres and we decided we did not need that much for the Horse, a riding mule that someone gave us and a Shetland pony and Rhodesian Ridgeback dogs we were raising. We sold 15 acres. But you see if we did not have a horse we may have never moved, so Marion County grew into the name Horse Country a long time ago probably in about 1950’s. Now to put the icing on the cake now we have the World Equestrian Center. It is growing to one of the biggest industries in our Country. Everything you can think of for horse showing and riding competition. Stall and horse care and elaborate hotels to stay in. With the best restaurants, entertainment and large meeting room bringing large numbers of visitor for industrial shows.
So I worn you if you love horses you will really enjoy Ocala. By the way you have Silver Springs attraction in Marion county and Rainbow Spring ’s Dunnellon Florida the natural park with beautiful blue water coming out of the ground. I think the price is $2 per person. Walk the nature trails and have something from the snack bar or go to downtown Dunnellon and have snacks at the Dunnellon Coffee Co in the Aldi’s grocery shopping center. My son and his wife own that coffee shop.
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Boy is there ever unrest in our nation and across the world. How about that the man that is running our country and his team are making progress in the world. The oil industry will Never be the same. I hope we can share and help the people in Guatemala. Maybe the same in Iran with their leader saying from the river to the sea, now a new spokes person has rose up and said that is no longer their goal they want peace but only when they were force into it! You the saying say uncle when you give up well now it say “Uncle Sam”!
Our leader is a modern day John Wayne, wow what a leader. “TRUE GRIT!” I’ll vote for him in 2028, I would rather we follows the political laws but if we still need a strong leader I will help him! I also like JD Vance he is giving the president the respect he deserves!
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I love then CEP Marion County Metro Chamber of Commerce. You can go to a partner meeting and not hear any politics. They are dedicated to help the growth of Growth and planning. The kind of people you want too talk to at a meeting, I call it social / business.
“Where friends meet and business prospers!” They have a new leader in Matt McCormick. He has a column in this newspaper on page two.
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Many years ago an American Agent Aldrich Ames betrayed us. Giving up over a 100 American Agents to the Soviets. He was found guilty and recently died in federal prison while serving a life sentence. We should look closely at our agents today and our higher ups.
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The Supreme Court addresses the mail in Election Laws. You can no longer count ballots that come in late!
